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How scared should you be of North Korea?

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North Korean war map targets Texas

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North Korean war map targets Texas02:43

South Korea's close proximity to the north puts it easily within range of the North's missiles -- not to mention the heavy artillery that's built up at the Demilitarized Zone separating the two countries.

The North also has a military force of 1.1 million -- nearly double the South Korean military and the 28,000 American troops stationed in the South. Its numbers advantage offsets an aging air force, which has suffered fuel shortages in the past, and a navy that's smaller than South Korea's.

People in South Korea's capital don't seem too concerned with the North's latest rhetoric -- they've been hearing it for decades. But it's different on Yeongpyeong Island, a two-hour ferry trip from the South Korean mainland, where people have fresh memories of North Korea's shelling in 2010.

Guam

In addition to South Korea, North Korea has threatened to strike U.S. bases in the Pacific, specifically those in Hawaii and Guam.

The United States recently announced that it would be sending a land-based missile defense system to Guam, an island in the Western Pacific about 2,000 miles from North Korea, to defend against a possible attack.

North Korea says U.S. bases in Guam are in "striking range," but at least one analyst says he's doubtful of a legitimate threat.

"Unless there has been a miraculous turnaround among North Korea's strategic forces, there is little chance that it could successfully land a missile on Guam, Hawaii or anywhere else outside the Korean Peninsula that U.S. forces may be stationed," wrote James Hardy, Asia-Pacific editor ofIHS Jane's Defence Weekly, in an opinion column for CNN.com.

Still, the U.S. is taking no chances.

"It only takes being wrong once, and I don't want to be the secretary of defense who was wrong once," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said.

Japan

While there may be some doubt about whether North Korea could strike Guam, the same cannot be said for Japan.

Only a few hundred miles separate North Korea and Japan, which also hosts U.S. military bases.

State media in North Korea reported in March that it had rockets on standby, ready to fire at U.S. targets on the mainland. That report came with a photo of Kim featuring a map behind him that appeared to show straight lines stretching to the continental United States.